How to play the piano?

Having a piano in a home often motivates owners to teach their children or grandchildren to play it. But adults themselves are not averse to playing their favorite melodies on this polyphonic instrument, both for their own pleasure and for guests. Let's consider whether it is possible to realize your musical desires by independent lessons at home, if previously there was nothing to do with playing the piano.

And first of all, you need to learn how to properly sit at the instrument.

Correct seating of a pianist is the key to a successful educational process, from which one should only get pleasure, and not a bunch of troubles in the form of pain in the back, neck, legs, arms and fingers.

To make the classes as comfortable as possible, you must fulfill 3 conditions for this.

1. Invite a customizer and tune a musical instrument.
2. Find the right stool (bench) or purchase a screw pianist chair with a round seat, adjustable in height. It is also better to look for a bench that looks like a bench with a square seat with an adjustable height.
3. Buy a book version of at least one self-explanatory piano tutorial... These guides teach beginners in both sheet music and numbers. There are also universal ones, which make it possible to choose the desired method - either musical, or digital, or all together.

A regular chair and bench without changing the seat height is not suitable for teaching. This is especially important for children - they are constantly growing.Even choosing a comfortable bench for a child today, it will become excessively high in a month.

But adults should also pay special attention to the choice of seat. A seating position that is too high will force the hands to move into an elevated position, from which it is difficult to lift the fingers and press the keys. A low seating position will require reaching for the keys and placing the hand too low, which can cause pinching of the muscles.

Here are the main points of instrument seating that are considered correct for the aspiring pianist.

The chair should be placed opposite the keyboard in its center. This is where the 1st octave keys begin. Half of the low-pitched keys (on the left side of the keyboard) are in the range of the left-hand fingers, and about the same number of the higher-pitched right-hand keys are in the right-hand area.

When it comes to the distance from the piano keyboard to the chair, there are no clear standards other than general guidelines.

With the same height, two people may have different indicators of elongation of the upper torso, the length of the legs, arms, hands and fingers. It is these developmental features that are decisive for the pianist when he sits down at the piano.

How far from the keyboard the chair of a particular musician should be is determined by the following positions of the parts of his arms and legs:

• landing - on the edge of the chair (1/3 or 1/2 of the seat area);
• frame - straightened (a slender posture is maintained);
• if you stretch your arms forward, then they should rest against the beginning of the keys (from the side of the exit from the instrument body);
• shoulders are in a relaxed state, hold evenly, and do not move up during the game;
• distance between the body of an adult pianist and the piano keyboard approximately 30-40 cm, depending on the length of the person's arms;
• legs should stand firmly against the pedals, the hips are almost parallel to the floor, and form an approximately right angle with the musician's body (for children, you need to arrange a footrest).

And how to position your hands is a separate conversation that requires special attention.

The position of the hands for playing the piano is the main beacon by which you can assess the correct seating position, both in height and distance of the chair from the instrument.

Let's list the criteria for the correct placement of the pianist's hands.

1. The elbows of the hands hang down and are with the forearms and hands at the level of the keyboard (or slightly above). However, the elbows should not touch or press against the player's body - there should be free space between them and the body. But a wide spread of elbows to the side is also unacceptable.
2. Parts of the arms from shoulders to elbows should be held in the area of ​​the boundaries of the sidewalls of the body.... They do not move forward in front of the body, which happens in those undesirable moments when the musician leans towards the back of the chair, or, conversely, back when excessively leaning towards the keyboard.
3. You need to learn to relax your fingers avoiding excessive tension in them even when pressing the keys, not to mention the moments when they are released.
4. The fingers are always bent (rounded) above the keyboard. In this form, they are most relaxed (the natural position of the hand and fingers, in which the muscles remain at rest).
5. Pressing the keys is done with the "pads" (soft tips) of the fingers. In this case, the fingers should not bend in the joints.

Free fingers do not hang over the keyboard, but lie on it, without creating additional inconveniences for playing fingers.

The keyboard of modern pianos consists of 88 keys, of which 52 are white and 36 are black. The same number of keys is contained in the grand piano - this is the piano standard. However, in domestic pianos produced before the 70s of the XX century, the keyboard consisted of 85 keys (50 white and 35 black). Later, the piano was released with a full keyboard for the piano.

Below are images of two octave piano keyboards:

• top keyboard - 88 keys (full);
• bottom - 85 (non-standard).

The piano keyboard includes a range of sounds of 7 full octaves, from the C note of the controctave to the B note of the 4th octave. In the lower register there are still 3 keys, the sounds of which belong to the subcontroctave (the lowest notes of the piano): "A", "A-sharp" (black key) and "B". That is, the subcontact is incomplete - only 3 sounds.

There is also incomplete octave in high register - 5th. True, it consists of only one sound "do". The 5th octave C is the highest note in the range of this musical instrument.

Concept "octave" in music means a sound range or interval, including 8 (Latin octava means "eight, eighth") steps and 6 tones from any note to the exact same note by name, similar in sound, but having a different pitch. For example, the note "C" of the 1st octave is absolutely in tune with the note "C" of the 2nd octave or the note "C" of the small octave, but differs from them in pitch. The same can be said about any other notes: the "si" of the 1st octave is consonant with the "si" of the 2nd and minor octaves, the note "mi" of the 3rd octave is consonant with the "mi" of the 2nd and 4th octaves, and etc. In each pair of compared notes, the difference in pitch is one octave (exactly 6 tones). In this case, the initial note is the 1st, and the final note is the 8th.

The sequence of musical sounds "do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si" is called the main scale... These sounds are produced by pressing the corresponding white keys on the piano.

Any octave - 1st, 2nd, large, and all others - starts exactly with the note "C", and ends with "B", if you move along the keyboard sequentially from its left to the right. The subcontroctave, located on the left edge, contains only 2 white keys, on which its final sounds - "la" and "si" are played. As already noted, the subcontroctave is incomplete.

The image below shows a portion of the piano keyboard with note names. From the picture it will be easier to understand what has just been said.

In musical theory, the smallest interval between two sounds of different heights is considered to be a semitone. This is a law that is carried out in practice. Musical instruments, including pianos, are made and tuned so that their sounds can vary in pitch not less than this interval. If on the piano you consistently walk through all the keys (both white and black) from left to right, then each key raises the previous sound by exactly one semitone.

Each octave includes 7 white keys with the sounds of the main scale (from "C" to "B" inclusive) and 5 black ones. The black keys are semitones from the main sounds. Moreover, the notes of the black keys have 2 names derived from the notes between which they are located. For example, the sound of a black key between the C and D keys can be called either C sharp or D flat.

• Sharp (#) - it is a note sign that means raising the sound by a semitone. In our example, the "C" note on the white key is a "clean" note of the main scale, and the black one, thus, will be raised by a semitone for it, since it is located to the right of the "clean" note.
• Flat (b) - a sign, which, on the contrary, means that this or that sound is lowered by a semitone. In our case, the black key is to the left (which means, lower by a semitone in sound) from the note "D", so the word "flat" is added to the name of the "clean" note "D".

There are no black keys between the keys of the sounds "si" - "do" and "mi" - "fa", since between these notes the sound interval is just a semitone. It is for the better - it is easier for a musician to navigate in octaves and notes, having such "islands" of black keys in a continuous sequence of a white keyboard.

In the image above, the names of all black keys are signed, and the designations of the sounds of the main scale are added with letters of the Latin alphabet:

1. the note "before" is denoted by the letter C;
2. "Re" - D;
3. "Mi" - E;
4. "Fa" - F;
5. "Salt" - G;
6. "La" - A;
7. "Si" - B (sometimes H).

These letters also denote chords based on the main tones. If, for example, the root (root) of a chord is "C", then the chord is denoted by the letter C. If the root is "F", then the chord is F.

Experts believe that at first a piano learner does not need to rush to learn musical literacy, so as not to overload his head with information. Start right away with the hands and the rules of sound production. But this is more likely true only for young children who study with teachers. For everyone else, the right decision would be to combine both musical literacy and the practice of playing the instrument.

The piano part is recorded on two staffs:

• in the key "Salt", which is also called "violin", calculated mainly for playing the melody and middle voices with the fingers of the right hand;
• in the left-hand fa-clef.

First, you need to study notes within 3-4 octaves, starting with a large octave and ending with the middle of the 2nd. In addition, connect and practice: play notes with your left hand from a small octave to the first, and then continue with the fingers of your right hand:

The duration of the notes can be very different. For beginners, it is worthwhile to restrict ourselves to the following series:

• whole note (lasts 4 counts: "one-two-three-four");
• half (2 counts last: either "one-two", or "two-three", or "three-four");
• quarters (only 1 count lasts: "one" or "two", "three" or "four").

Before learning to play even simple melodies, you need to practice with the placement of hands and the order of movement of the fingers on simple two-octave scales and arpeggios: C major, A minor. For students from scratch, learning scales will help a lot, where the sequence of fingers is determined by numbers.

The fingers of both hands are designated as follows:

• thumbs - number 1;
• index - 2;
• medium - 3;
• nameless - 4;
• little fingers - 5.

Now for examples of scales:

The order of the game is as follows:

1. the scales are learned separately: C major, then - versions of A minor;
2. arpeggios are played (stave lines 2 and 5);
3. playing chords (consonance of the endings of the 1st and 4th lines);
4. link scales of 1st and 4th lines with chords;
5. play scales with both hands: left - a small octave, right - the first (in unison).

Having dealt with the scales, arpeggios and chords played separately, first with the left and then with the right hand, you need to try to master the scales by simultaneously playing with both hands. Up to the first octave, they are played with the left hand, and then - with the right fingers.

Now you can try playing melodies of simple songs.

It will be interesting for children to play a song from the cartoon:

For adults, the initial learning to play the piano can take much less time than for children, especially very young (6-8 years old). The fact is that adults can start playing the notes right away. Children, on the other hand, will have to learn musical notation longer, since they will have to explain practically the entire theory literally “on their fingers” (they are unlikely to be able to read and comprehend what is written in educational musical literature on their own).

But then everything will be the other way around: children have more time for classes, and fingers are more plastic, and hearing develops faster.... Problems with plasticity and sensitivity of fingers in adults also become more acute with age. A person under 30 is much more promising in music education than a 40 or 50.

And as for the specific terms of training, they depend on the intensity and interest of the individual: initial training - from 3 months. up to a year, and each subsequent level - from 1 to 1.5 years.

The aspiring pianist must motivate his learning with results. If he doesn't like them, then something is wrong. In this case, you need to take the following actions:

1. turn to professional musicians for help in setting hands and correcting playing technique (sometimes a few lessons correct everything, and improve the mood);
2. learn only your favorite tunes at one time, the sheet music of which can be downloaded on the Internet even in the simplest versions;
3. listen more often to famous instrumentalists in those genres that you like most: if you like the classics - find classical pianists, if jazz - a jazz musician and so on;
4. sometimes you need to record your game on an electronic medium, and then analyze errors with their further elimination;
5. you should always try to learn plays not only for yourself, but also for those around you: their relatives and friends, friends and girlfriends, about whose musical preferences it is easy to find out for yourself.